LeapFrog Learning Lion > Reviews (4)

Easter used to be a time of painting hard boiled eggs, a small stack of chocolate and fluffy bunny ears, but now, with society aiming to be healthy and so much pressure on mums and dads to make their kids eat healthily, things in my family at least have changed. In place of the chocolate comes small gifts. This year was Elsa's first Easter and one of the gifts she received from her granddad was the "Leapfrog Roll & Rhyme Learning Lion"

Features-
Part of the Little Touch range by Leapfrog the lion is aimed at children 6-36 months old. It is a plush toy, like a stuffed animal only he has a rolling section in his tummy which lights up. When the section is rolled the lion also plays a song and interacts with the child and the picture goes from day to night, he has a stain feel mane which is great for little babieslearning about texture and a totally adorable face that's hard to resist.

The interactive features are quite simple and come in 2 sections- Daytime and Night time. When the picture on lions tummy shows the day time the tune is quite lively and activities focus more on the day, when the picture shows night time the music is more subdued and melodic and the song is about how lion is sleepy and going to bed. It's a really sweet toy. Lion has a small pink heart shaped button on his tummy above the roll screen, when this is pressed the screen lights up for a moment highlighting the picture within the screen. In the different modes you are taught animals, colours, sounds and even encourages movements giving a few actions that can be followed.

What Elsa thinks-
Well she's a year old, it's cute, cuddly, bright yellow and plays music………….of course she loves it, she drags the poor thing around by it's leg or chews on his ears, I feel quite sorry for him sometimes.

I wouldn't say she's learnt much from lion as his educational function is quite small, she could already roar but its cute watching her join in with lion. The poor chap can only manage a small bit of his song now the batteries are low but that doesn't seem to bother her, she still spins the barrel in the tummy and presses on the heart button to try and get the light to work.

Her older brother Christopher (who's 3) also likes the toy, but he loves animals and lions in particular so it's no surprise he's taken to the toy. Lion holds little educational value for him though as he already knows the animals names and sounds and also already knows his colours. I think the joy for him comes from the tug of war they have to gain possession of the toy.

Our lion tends to be kept at nanny and granddads house which I think is perhaps why he has kept them interested as long as he has, I'm not sure if he was with us day to day that they would pay him too much attention in comparison to their other toys.

A Parents view-
The lion is battery operated as most of these kind of toys are, it takes 3aa batteries which are supplied. The compartment is within lions body which, while easy to access, is quite bulky and means that his body isn't as soft and cuddly as it could be.

I wouldn't say this would be a toy that would be taken to bed as it's too hard to snuggle into despite it's cuddly arms, legs and head. The batteries on lion have already run out in the 5 months we've had it and I can't say it's been used all that much, so all I can imagine is that it either drains batteries quickly or was used a lot in the shop before it was purchased.

His soft "fur" is best to be wiped clean with a damp cloth, due to the type of fabric it's made of (and of course how mucky your child is) the lion is prone to getting a bit sticky. He seems quite durable, the padding on his body protects the inner compartment from damage when dropped or thrown (which happens a lot in our house!) My one main complaint really is the button nose, these kind of noses are easily pulled off, although lion has not yet lost his, and I worry about them being a choking hazard.

The voice in this toy is quite sweet, not annoying or offensive like some can be. It's volume is not too loud meaning it wont be drowning out all the noise around it, however the song and features are quite repetitive, which may either drive you mad or not keep the little ones attention for very long.

Overall-
I'm not quite sure really whether I would recommend him or not, I don't think he is educational or interactive enough to really teach children over the age of 6 months and keep them entertained, equally he isn't soft bodied enough to become a favourite bed time ted. For the money I guess he is good value, a lot less then many other toys on the market that are aimed at similar things but he wouldn't have been the first toy I would have looked at. Personally I would say if you're thinking of this for your little one let them see it first, if they love him completely then go for it but perhaps not if what you're after is education or a high level of interaction. Lion is good for babies in the younger age bracket but not challenging enough for older ones, certainly not for 36 month children, either way he still looks cute!

The toy retails in the range of £9.99 and I have seen them in Asda as well as online. An Elephant also available in a cute blue colour. Go to leapfrogshop.co.uk for more details.